1. Field of the Invention
Disclosed herein is a bidirectional moving micro-robot system. More particularly, disclosed herein is a bidirectional moving micro-robot system capable of moving bidirectionally, i.e., forward and backward, in the inside of internal organs.
2. Description of the Related Art
A method using an endoscope is used as a method for treating or examining internal organs in vivo without cutting them open. However, such a typical endoscopic method requires a highly skilled operating technique and gives patients pain.
Therefore, technologies for an in-vivo movement system have been studied, which is inserted into a patient's body through its mouth or anus to treat or examine internal organs without giving the patient pain. A capsule type endoscope that is inserted into a human body through its mouth to photograph the inside of the human body is used as a representative in-vivo movement system.
The capsule type endoscope is provided with a micro-miniature camera for photographing in-vivo images, a communication device for transmitting the photographed images to the exterior thereof, and the like. Through the capsule type endoscope, it is possible to photograph the inside of internal organs.
However, since such a capsule type endoscope passively moves in an internal organ in dependent upon the peristalsis of the internal organ, its moving speed is entirely slow in the internal organ and remarkably changed depending on characteristics of a digestive organ or patients subjected to operation. Further, since the in-vivo position and pose of the capsule type endoscope are not appropriately controlled depending on conditions, it is difficult to make an accurate diagnosis.
Therefore, studies have been conducted to develop a robot system that is provided a moving unit of its own to actively move in the inside of internal organs. However, it is general that active-moving type robot systems that have been developed so far can move only in one direction.
Such a unidirectional moving robot system has difficulty in moving backward to perform a desired operating or photographing process when it passes by an affected part or part necessary for photographing. A bidirectional moving micro-robot system has been developed to solve such a problem. However, the structure of the system is complicated, and it is difficult to control the system.